Weekend Warrioring

 I'll kick this off with a short race report from Saturday's Blarney Blitz 5K. 

Weather was 10 degrees at race time with a 13 MPH wind.  If Strava weather is to be believed the "feels like" was -7.  I knew conditions were going to be bad and that made it hard for me to dedicated myself to this race.  

I woke up at my normal 5 am and had my first cup of coffee.  Then warmed up on the treadmill for 3.50 miles.  Had a second cup of coffee.  Got dressed (thermal tights, shorts, warmup pants, t-shirt, long sleeve thermal shirt, goretex jacket, 2 pairs socks, green hat, green bandana to cover the face, second pair of long green stripped socks, and my sketches Go Run racing flats).  Used the bathroom one last time and then headed to the race.  

I got there, picked up my packet, went back to the car for about 10 minutes and then ran another 1.5 miles outside to keep warming up.  I'd say I at least dressed okay for the conditions because although I was still cold, I wasn't miserable.  Finally got to the start line with about 7 minutes to go and tried to keep mobile while we waited for the race to start.  

They started the race and I was about 10 rows back from that fairly narrow start.  I wasn't planning to take off too fast anyway so id didn't matter.  I passed a bunch of people that first 400 meters and that was about it.  At the 800 meter mark I was right behind a woman.  I kept pace with her for about 400 meters.  I didn't want to shadow her but she wasn't really letting me get beside her either.  We came to a tight icy turn so I slowed down to give her the right of way.  After that, she started to slow and I wound up passing her and leaving her behind.  

About the mile mark someone passed me.  Other than that, I wound up staying in the same place for the rest of the race.  There was a guy in front of me I kind of tracked down but when I got on his shoulder with 800m to go he sped up and I didn't respond (just no drive to race in this cold!).  

I wound up running 20:50 for "5K" but I think the course might have been a little long.  According to the official splits I was at 6:26 for the first mile and 6:33 for the second mile but averaged 6:42 for the race.  I don't really think I slowed down in the last mile and my Garmin had me at 6:28, 6:37, 6:34.  This particular race organizer isn't great at getting course measurements exact so I wouldn't be surprised.  In this case it doesn't really matter but I wasn't very pleased with my time or performance.

I just don't think I run well in the cold and my mind just wasn't there.  I was running hard but not really race effort... but at the same time I didn't necessarily feel like there was an extra gear in my arsenal if I wanted to speed up.   My heartrate was in the mid 160s creeping up to 170 by the end so at least I got a good tempo workout in.  My only disappointment is that I wasn't really able to gauge my true fitness.  I though I would be able to run low 19 minutes at the very least so this result doesn't sit well with me.I wound up coming in 8th overall and winning the 40-49 age group even with my lackluster time.  For my efforts, I won a cookie and a green beer.  Can't complain!

first place cookie!

The good news about the race is that it didn't take that much out of me because I had a long run on Sunday.  I got out the door by 9 and the temp was already in the mid 30s and sunny.  It felt amazing and I took off at a decent pace of 7:39, followed by 7:23 and 7:21.  At that point my average pace was under 7:30 and I kept it that way for the rest of the run. I started wearing a bit on miles 8, 9, and 10 running 7:36, 7:32, 7:36 but bucked down for the last 3 miles and ran 7:21, 7:23, 7:15 even though they were mostly into a strong wind.  Finished up with a half marathon at 7:27 average pace to cap off a 60+ mile week.

Wound up being a fairly tough weekend of work and I took at 2 hour nap after my run.  Overall, I'm no worse for the wear and feel mostly recovered (or at least no more fatigued than usual considering all the mileage I've put in since I started my streak).

Speaking of streaks, today was day number 70.  I ran 5.5 miles on the treadmill at 8:45 pace.  I could have kept going but I really think I need to take some downtime and at least recover some.  It's really hard for me to process running a 20:50 5K but then running a 1:37 half marathon the next day.  I need to start doing some real intensity work... not sure how or when but it needs to be soon!